5 predictions for Chirp

Twitter’s first conference, called Chirp, is this week and big things are expected. Over the past month Twitter has announced @anywhere at SXSW and their purchase of Tweetie for the iPhone. This week Twitter will continue to be the news with their first ever conference. Twitophiles from all over the world are converging on San Francisco to find out what’s next. Those of not able to make can watch the entire event on justin.TV.

I’ve put together a list of what news I expect to hear from Chirp. 

Monetization strategy - How will Twitter make money? They’ve been keeping analysts guessing for months and now we’ll finally get an idea of how the company will sustain itself. I’m predicting a paid keyword search, ads on profiles and premium accounts.

New features added - Location, tiny urls and video and photo sharing are standard features on most Twitter apps like Tweetdeck and Seesmic. It only makes sense that Twitter adds more features like this. Sure it will upset a few business models but if Twitter wants to grow, they’ll have to add some features that conflict with already established apps. Their purchase of Tweetie shows they are already moving in that direction.

How @anywhere will work - We can already use OAuth and many sites allow you to use your Twitter account as a log in to their site, so what makes @anywhere any different? We’ll a better idea of why this is a better solution.

Redesign - After redesigning their front page, what other changes are in store for users. If they announce new features, hopefully, we’ll get a peak at how they’ll be integrated into the site.

New partnerships - With the addition of Tweetie as the “official” iPhone app, can other apps be far off? Will Foursquare be the official location app? Will Seesmic become the official desktop application? It makes sense for Twitter to endorse different apps. It ensures a level of quality and makes sure their is a line of products that adhere to a common standard.

I’m curious to hear what features people would like to see added to Twitter and what announcements you expect to hear. Leave your thoughts below.

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.